The battle for influence between NBC News and MS NOW is heading to the White House Correspondents Dinner, with the two former corporate siblings each planning high-wattage after parties after the big dinner.
The past few months have seen a mostly amicable split between the two news brands.
Under its new corporate parent Versant, MSNBC changed its name to MS NOW, as key talent were forced (and in some cases eagerly agreed) to choose which corporate brand they would settle into once the split was complete.
NBC News secured talent like Kristen Welker, Steve Kornacki and José Díaz-Balart, while MS NOW became the homebase for people like Jacob Soboroff, Vaughn Hillyard and Peter Alexander.
Only Willie Geist is working as the rare unicorn, with on-air roles at both outlets (Sunday Today, and Morning Joe, respectively)
But the WHCD will test that relationship, as the brands are each planning after parties that will kick off within a half hour of each other once the dinner ends and continue late into the night.
For some context: NBC News Group has, for years, hosted what many consider the preeminent WHCD after party (at some point the company started branding the event simply as “The After Party”).
The party would see the powerful, politicos, journalists, celebrity guests and agents mingling with NBCU talent and executives. It traces its origin, however, to an after party launched by MSNBC (as guests at the time will tell you, Rachel Maddow tended bar at that party most years).
It appears that NBC News got “The After Party” in the split, as it will host, alongside Telemundo, this year’s event at the spacious French Ambassador’s residence in Kalorama, one of the preferred party locations in the District.
The theming is said to be similarly glamorous and ambitious, per someone familiar, with NBC’s 100th anniversary and the 2026 FIFA World Cup (Telemundo has Spanish-language rights) on the menu, alongside NBC’s “Common Ground” editorial franchise.
But that isn’t stopping MS NOW from throwing its own grittier, more subversive competing shindig, which it is branding as “The Underground After Party.” MS NOW’s event is being held in a more claustrophobic space in a former trolley station a short walk from the Washington Hilton. The speakeasy theme suggests a more intimate affair, while the “this is democracy after hours” invitation seems somewhat resistance-coded.
“Over the past year, as MS NOW built and launched a standalone, independent newsroom, one core belief has guided our mission: a free press and the journalists who power it are essential to the future of democracy,” its invitation reads. “Following this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, we invite you to step just beyond the expected and into something entirely new — an undiscovered experience just moments away from the Washington Hilton.”
MS NOW, of course, is almost certainly targeting a more niche and partisan crowd than NBC News (now free to fully embrace its progressive identity, the channel may be betting that it can be a hub for Democrats after the event), though inevitably many agents, journalists and elected officials will have to choose which party to attend, or risk party-hopping and being left at the door.
MS NOW’s slightly earlier start time and prime location may also get the first wave of partiers, even if NBC’s more elegant venue and theming ultimately attracts the larger (and significantly more bipartisan) crowd.
This year’s WHCD is likely to dominate the news cycle, with President Trump agreeing to attend for the first time in office (he famously boycotted the event in his first term). This year’s featured entertainer will be the mentalist Oz Pearlman, with the event avoiding a high-profile comedian that would likely skewer the administration, but with Trump attending, fireworks are still expected.
But his decision to attend has angered some journalists, with HuffPost opting not to attend, and journalists at some other news organizations weighing whether to attend as well (some journalists are planning to wear pins celebrating the First Amendment, in a cute though purely symbolic gesture). His presence will also mean that dinner guest lists are closely-watched, with CBS News planning to bring Secretary Pete Hegseth (who has vilified media coverage in press briefings), while the influencer Clavicular is expected to make the rounds as well.
The party scene, meanwhile, has splintered accordingly. Digital upstarts like Substack, Puck, Semafor and Status are planning events ahead of the dinner. UTA is planning its annual night-before party, while CAA and Vanity Fair are planning their own event the same night. Tammy Haddad’s legendary garden brunch remains a stalwart, and Grindr is, for whatever reason, planning a party of its own.
MS NOW and NBC News have also set separate events over the long weekend that will lean into their editorial priorities:
NBC News is hosting a “Common Ground” event Thursday evening, hosted by Welker, Kornacki, Lester Holt and Mike Tirico, and featuring sports heavyweights and Sens. Katie Britt and John Fetterman; MS NOW meanwhile is planning what it is calling its “Future Correspondents’ Brunch” which will be held on Friday and connect journalism students with network talent and executives.
But there is no more clear sign of the new D.C. than the NBC News-MS NOW battle for afterparty relevance. Just as Oscar attendees may need to pick and choose where they go after the final statuette is handed out (or to figure out who to beg to get an invite), the D.C. elite will need to decide where they want to be seen.
NBC News is betting that it can remain the hottest ticket in town (and the only afterparty for all of the D.C. powers-that-be), while MS NOW seems to be betting that its less corporate “underground” approach will appeal to a section of the power players in town that makes it the sceney option.
